[at-l] Cheerio in the Smokies, part 5

[ATnavi@aol.com]

She's catching up on these in Erwin en route to Trail Days. Yup, they're out 
of sequence, but hey...more vicarious hiking!
Cheers, Navigator

We had a great dinner @ the smoky mt brewery with awesome beers and got an 
early shuttle up to the trail and were hiking by 9:30 the next am.  was a 
great decision.  we had dry clean clothes, had slept well and could get to 
the next shelter, Pecks corner w/o problems.  Sky cleared and it was a great 
day for hiking.  got to the top and found Pony & Spirit Dog had come back for 
me and waited cuz weird homeless guy was hanging out @ icewater shelter and 
they didnt want me to be alone up there.  Love how the trail community looks 
out for everyone!  got to the Bunion and it was sooo awesome.  The views were 
great and the ice melted so I could climb out there for pics and a break.  
scared the tourists & day hikers when I didnt even stop, just handed a girl 
my camera and walked up it with poles and pack to get a pic @ top.  there 
were all these indrawn breaths, but hard to explain to them that the AT has 
made us climb longer and harder rock faces already... didnt think anything 
bout it until I turned around and everyone was just staring.  I felt better 
when the next thru hiker to come along did the same thing, he even jumped a 
little @ the top!  the bunion was everything I had been told it was and i 
really enjoyed it.  the rest of the days hike was fun, mostly ridgewalk and 
good views, got to the shelter to find not only the am crew, but several old 
friends who had spent the night @ icewater.  later bumblebee & papa smurf 
showed up and it was great to see them again.  That was our last good weather 
day. from then on, the smokies became something to be endured and just gotten 
the @$#%$# out of as soon as possible without getting hypothermia.  I had 
planned to go to Cosby knob the next day, but it was raining so hard, a real 
deluge, and cold & windy that most of us stopped @ tri-corner.  we all ended 
up pretty much just moving together shelter to shelter in the rain.  that 
nite weatherman showed up so we were all together again.  Me, Bumblebee, Papa 
Smurf, Weatherman, Uncle Walt, Blue Duck and Screwy Squirrel  it was funny 
when he walked into the shelter and said, My God, everyone is here!  Brit 
also came in.  Hadnt seen him since rocky top.  we spent a long afternoon 
feeding the fire to try and dry clothes and then all went to sleep cozily 
nestled thermarest to thermarest because there weren't dividers on the top 
shelf.  it made it very warm, although we almost had to roll over in unison!  
Hey, Ruckers, Ramkitten from the Ruck was there with her hiking partners. 
she's having a good hike.

Nothing much to say about the other days except they were repeats of the 
early cold, wet rainy days with no views and no idea what was around you.  we 
were all just talked of getting out of the park, away from shelters with boy 
scout troops, and mostly Cheeseburgers @ Mt Mommas.  they are legendary and 
huge and we were hungry hikers.  Every nite we talked about cheeseburgers 
until we could smell them.  I even had a dream about eating one.  just lucky 
I didnt end up eating my thermarest in my sleep!  Weird Homeless Guy showed 
up @ the next to last shelter again.  We were getting used to him, but he 
still makes most of us uncomfortable ... but we were all together and staying 
that way so it was safe ... and the next day another miracle ... as I was 
getting lower and almost out of the park, the sun came out and I got some 
final good smokies views.

Cheerio  GA-ME 2000
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